Photo of the week end

January means a brief respite between cyclocross season and mountainbike season, and so we have a new family routine. For the last two Sundays, Sophie and I have driven with Ben to the beautiful spot he wants to bike in. Sophie and I hike for an hour or two, along Ben’s biking route. She’s getting better at hiking: starting to enjoy watching birds and telling me stories, crawling under interesting trees, leaping from rocks. But an hour is her limit. Then we find some place interesting to hang out til Ben finishes his ride. Last week, that meant camel-riding and butterfly-petting at the amazing Palm Springs Zoo. This week, it simply meant practicing throwing sticks into a beautiful, burbling brook in the Laguna Mountains.

Some day I also want to get time to go for a long bike-ride by myself, but in the meantime, this isn’t a bad life.